Multiple Genetic Snakes for People Segmentation in Video Sequences

In this paper we propose a method for finding people and segmenting their body parts in video image sequences. We propose the use of Genetic Snakes, that are active contour models, also known as snakes, with an energy minimization procedure based on Genetic Algorithms (GA). Genetic Snakes have been proposed to overcome some limits of the classical snakes, as initialization and existence of multiple minima, and have been successfully applied to images from different domains. We extend the formulation of Genetic Snakes in two ways, by adding an elastic force that couples multiple contours together and by applying them to color images. Experimental results, carried out on images acquired in our lab, are described.